I'm not sure how many people read my blog, since a lot of the newer comments I've been getting are guest posts... but how are your all's experiences with the social aspect of Allods? Have you joined a guild? Did you start the game with a group of friends? Did you make some friends along the way? Or maybe, you're just a solo person?

What brought about this topic was a thread on the forums commenting on how they could not find enough players to run heroics... there would always be a certain class/role missing. Now I figured if you were in a guild, and you made friends while leveling up, you wouldn't be as likely to run into this problem when you hit cap. After all, this is a massively multiplayer experience - the social aspect of mmorpgs is half the fun! Feeling like you're part of a community tends to make players stick around longer than if they did not participate in such social endeavors.

You want to find a group/guild that...

Yes, a lot of my entries will be discussing pvp... because I like pvp, but I don't like Allods pvp.

I love how much e-peen waving there is on the forums right now about pvp. Specifically certain guild members vs other guild members of another faction. I can't believe people are already using words like "skill" and calling other players bad. I'm sorry, but if WoW arenas was viewed as one of the least skilled mmorpg pvp-types (why yes, it is an e-sport), then Allods isn't even on the meter. Currently there is way too much imbalance between the classes... that's right... I called it out! CC lasts for way too long, a certain class can attack while bubbled, too much rock, paper, scissor-ing.

Since there are no battlegrounds or skill!rankings, I'm afraid you can't single out players as being better than another. Ultimately it's up to groups of players, in this case: whole entire guilds. But how are you going to measure that? One side will always think they are better than the other... and no one will admit defeat. Alas, I believe the e-peen threads will live on. Perhaps the better question is, why does it matter? So what if a League guild lands in Yasker's Tower? Cool story bro?

I wonder if guilds understand that their forum presence actually affects how other people view them. Although, if their original plan was to look like elitist jerks, then kudos to them. I'm all for competition, but not of the insult-throwing kind... and with my experience in mmorpgs, the people who need to talk down / brag to other players are probably some of the worst players. And if by chance they are good, they have a personality that you'll get tired of quick.

Inflated egos != skill.

In other news, I plan to roll League (melee scout) on Nezeb sometime in the future. I've reserved the name Akrios (I like him better than Neilyo!). Cookies if you can guess the reference.

I've officially reached the much anticipated Holy lands, and in my first 10 minutes I've already seen 3 League players, 2 of which were labeled as level ??. I figured questing during the mornings would be fairly quiet, but I guess I'm wrong! Unfortunately I'm still 20% away from level 23, and have not run Lab13 yet, so I will be enjoying a few days idling in Nezeb until I ding before I continue questing. In the mean time I've decided to change my primary alt to a healer, who I will slowly be working on...

In the past few days I've befriended 2 players through group quests and ended up applying and joining a guild (TSW). Although it seems like most of their members are doing endgame content (read: Astral ships) it's nice to have green text pop up once in awhile when your questing zone is completely silent.

One thing that really makes the game not-as-fun-as-it-could-be is how huge a difference 1 level can make. I'm used to pvping on WoW and being able to kill players up to 5 levels higher than me out of sheer skill, but it looks very very unlikely on Allods, as a 3 level difference could mean 2-3 shotting someone. Another thing that bothers me, after lurking (and posting) on the official forums, is the lack of endgame content. The game seems really unfinished - even if astral ships are built it looks like people can get a ship full of epics in one day... and then what are they going to do? There is no real incentive to pvp as the pve gear is far better. There is only 1 raid boss and there are no battlegrounds, I'm quite afraid the game will be short-lived once the goal of 'endgame' is attained.